Just miles south of town
missiles waited in silos,
hell in a cornfield.
NOTES: In the early 1960s, we began hearing talk of the government planning to put missiles in underground silos in our part of the country. Sure enough, Minuteman sites began to appear in fields across west-central Missouri.
The silos weren’t advertised, but they were not hidden either. There was one clearly visible from the main highway south of town. Many others were scattered about the surrounding countryside, both in our Saline County and in neighboring counties.
The Minutemen were intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. They burned solid fuel, which allowed for much faster launches than the older, liquid-fuel missiles.
The idea was deterrence. Our missiles were able to target Soviet cities, which would discourage them from initiating an attack on the United States. They had missiles pointing at us. We hoped nobody blinked.
It was vaguely unsettling to know that we had nuclear missiles located so close. But, I was just a grade school kid, and didn’t think too much about such things.
A few years later, when I was in high school, talk started about upping the ante and locating anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) nearby. These were defensive weapons, designed to shoot down incoming ICBMs from the other side.
I read a couple of articles, believed myself to be an expert, and declared my opposition to the ABMs. If I remember correctly, the nationwide high school debate topic was about the ABM issue.
I really didn’t know what I was talking about. My big argument was that having ABMs located close to our homes would make us a primary target. I remember having no real answer when a classmate’s big brother, who attended the Naval Academy, pointed out that we were already targets because of the Minuteman missile installations. Having ABMs nearby, he said, would at least give us a chance to shoot down the Russian missiles headed for us.
The Minuteman missiles stood on guard until 1991, when then President George H.W. Bush ordered them off alert status. Under the terms of the START I treaty, the missiles were removed and the silos destroyed a few years later.
In hindsight, the Minutemen seemed to have done their job. The Russians never attacked. The inherent weakness of the Soviet Communist system gradually became more and more evident as their economy crumbled.
In 1989, Mr. Gorbachev did indeed “tear down this wall,” as Ronald Reagan demanded. Or at least the Soviet leader allowed East Germans to tear down the Berlin Wall themselves. And then we saw the Soviet empire collapse.
China essentially gave up on Communism around the same time, when its leaders realized that if they wanted to make money, they had to harness the power of markets.
Today we see Venezuela teetering on chaos as its experiment with socialism goes up in smoke. Cuba still soldiers on under the heel of the second-string Castro, yearning for the day when real freedom returns.
Of course North Korea continues to keeps the flame alive for all those who dream of establishing a world-wide Worker’s Paradise. It’s our best example of what happens when Communism reaches full flower.
It seems fitting on May Day to pause and think on these things.
Poetic Champions 